Election Day in Chiapas: A Low-Intensity War
Stephen, Lynn
That morning, in an act of military precision, ten Zapatista sympathizers drove into San Andras, jumped onto the kiosk where the two polling stations were located, burnt them and quickly...
...There are 17 major military barracks and 44 semi-permanent military installations in the conflict zone-and a soldier for every three or four inhabitants in many communities...
...More than 550 voting booths along with the accompanying ballots were either not installed or were systematically removed and destroyed in a coordinated protest movement calling attention to the lack of secure conditions for holding elections...
...These two governments have survived an uneasy co-existence since 1995...
...The army has completed a major road project connecting previously inaccessible communities to main population centers and facilitating troop movement, and has built permanent installations in dozens of communities...
...It all took place in three minutes...
...On July 6, the day of its mid- term elections, Mexico un- derwent a seismic political change as the long-ruling Insti- tutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost its congressional majority as well as the governance of Mexico City for the first time in nearly seven decades...
...As late as July 4th, the PRD protested the lack of proper conditions to the independent Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), but to no avail...
...In the state of Chiapas, however, low-intensity war, intimidation and severe local conflict continued as usual...
...Zapatistas broke off the negotiations in August, 1996 due to the absence of secure conditions for the talks...
...Since the warnings of unsafe conditions went unheeded, a coordinated strategy was carried out-primarily by civilian sympathizers of the EZLN-to remove the polling stations so that the elections results would have to be annulled...
...But the night before the elections, an angry mob of PRI sympathizers had ransacked the municipal building, broken a dozen windows, fired into an adjacent building, bashed the door of a women's craft cooperative and encircled the community for 24 hours...
...The Change" did not occur uniformly throughout Mexico...
...The clearest solution to the conflict in Chiapas and other states with significant indigenous populations-including Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Hidalgo-is the implementation of the Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture signed by the Mexican government in February of 1996...
...Another armed uprising would clearly spell suicide for the EZLN and its base communities, but with no other options in sight, it is being seriously considered by some...
...That morning, in an act of military precision, ten Zapatista sympathizers drove into San Andras, jumped onto the kiosk where the two polling stations were located, burnt them and quickly left...
...The party can also work to jump-start the stalled peace talks in San Andr6s...
...The PRD, with its new political power, can act as a political bridge in this critical political moment to bring the continued violence, militarization, and poverty of these southern states to national political attention...
...The army has taken over the state police forces of Chiapas, and is further augmented by the presence of thousands of federal "public security" and judicial police...
...This scene is a mild version of what daily life is like in communities within the "conflict zone," a term NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 10UPDATE / MEXICO used to refer to areas of Chiapas in which there are civilian supporters of the EZLN...
...More than 30% of the polling stations were either destroyed or not installed...
...San Andr6s, the government seat of an indigenous Tzotzil Maya county, and a core region of support for the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), had been the site of the second round of peace negotiations between the EZLN and the Mexican government...
...The day after, tensions were high...
...Prior to the elections in Chiapas, a wide range of independent organizations, as well as PRD officials, repeatedly tried to call attention to the insecurity and violent conditions in many parts of the state...
...All this has significantly altered the local economy and culture...
...The townspeople talked about everyone being so heavily armed...
...Since the Zapatista uprising in 1994, more than a third of the state has been heavily militarized...
...If the party ignores Chiapas, the situation in the state will further deteriorate...
...Mexican law requires that if 20% of the polling stations are not properly functioning throughout the voting period, the elections in that district must be annulled...
...There are now between 25,000 and 30,000 soldiers permanently installed in the regions of the state that are Zapatista strongholds...
...The Accords laid the groundwork for significant changes in the areas of indigenous rights, political participation, and cultural autonomy...
...no one was sure what would happen next...
...pueblos indios" (Indian peoples) and gave conceptual validation to the notions of "self-determination" and "autonomy" by using these explicit terms in the signed accords...
...The EZLN believes those same insecure conditions now make fair elections impossible...
...Now the streets were abandoned, people were hiding in their houses, and the main square was blocked off...
...Her latest book is Women and Social Movements in Latin America: Power From Below (Texas, 1997...
...Now is the moment for the PRD to extend a hand to the south of Mexico and guarantee that the transition to democracy reaches all Mexicans-not just those in the center...
...IFE declared that conditions were good enough to install all but 18 to 23 voting booths in the state and that the elections would be held as scheduled...
...The day before this blockade-the morning of election day-in an act of military precision, ten Zapatista sympathizers drove into San Andr6s, jumped onto the kiosk where the two polling stations were located, burnt them and quickly left...
...The desperation felt in Chiapas has nowhere to go...
...Outside the municipal building, some 20 supporters of the PRD government-in-rebellion were half asleep on benches, having stayed awake the entire night to guard against further onslaughts from the PRI mob...
...Contrary to press reports, observers who work with the Civic Alliance, a respected NGO, reported that many of these actions were carried out by unarmed individuals...
...In the two months prior to the elections, dozens of people were killed and wounded in local confrontations between the PRI and the PRD, and as victims of paramilitary and federal police forces...
...The political space won by the PRD this past July is in part due to the Zapatista rebellion and the national political mobilization it engendered among Mexico's civilian population...
...The state of Chiapas remains akin to a separate country...
...Ironically, the paramilitary group "Peace and Justice" which operates in the north of Chiapas carried out similar actions, but used arms to intimidate voters...
...In at least one voting district that includes the municipalities of Ocosingo, Altamirano, and Las Margaritas, the strategy of EZLN sympathizers appeared to be successful...
...The army is augmented by thousands of federal "public security" and judicial police...
...Voters abstained in many places, and more than 550 voting booths and accompanying voting materials were removed in an orderly fashion...
...Above all, they recognized the existence of political subjects called There are now between 25,000 and 30,000 soldiers permanently installed in the regions of the state that are Zapatista strongholds...
...With an electoral climate that resembles a low-intensity war, many communities announced their intentions not to vote and to prevent the installation of voting booths in places where the vote could not be guaranteed to be "free and secret...
...Another 20 from the same group were on watch behind the building occupied by the government-in-rebellion...
...Annulments are also possible in three other of Chiapas' 12 electoral districts...
...Like many towns in eastern Chiapas, San Andr6s is distinguished by having two governments-one governing in rebellion, supported by the majority of the community (in this case under the banner of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD)) and the other under the banner of the PRI...
...While people in Mexico City continued their celebrations into the folLynn Stephen is Professor of Anthropology at Northeastern University During the summer of 1997, supported by grant #6168 of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, she observed the elections in Chiapas and the tense conditions surrounding them...
...In addition, the Coordinating Group of Nongovernmental Organizations for Peace (CONPAZ) has identified seven different paramilitary groups operating in the area...
...lowing day, in Chiapas I witnessed more than 300 angry-looking members of the PRI, some holding large sticks, blocking the roads in the town of San Andr6s Larrainzar...
Vol. 31 • September 1997 • No. 2
